Triple Rainbow? Puck Pieterse Sets Sights on Road, Gravel World Champs

“Combining multiple disciplines sometimes results in having to make tough decisions.”

For Puck Pieterse, the struggle is real.

Does the newly-minted XCO world champion travel to North America to don her rainbow stripes at the remaining two World Cup races of the season, or does she stay closer to home and try to make it a triple rainbow at the road and gravel world championship events?

Pieterse announced on social media Monday that she’s opting for the latter.

“After a successful @letourfemmes I got the choice to or start at the road World Championships in Zürich and do gravel Worlds the week after, or go to the XCO World Cups overseas,” she said. “Think to be able to race Worlds is always special and something I don’t want to miss, so I went for the first option.”

Pieterse is officially on the start list for road worlds in Zurich, Switzerland on September 28. One week later, she’ll hop to Leuven, Belgium for gravel worlds on October 5.

Although the 22-year-old phenom will be hanging up her mountain bike to focus on road and gravel worlds for now, she promises to be back on the World Cup circuit first thing next year.

This year, Pieterse has solidified her place in the ranks of the greatest multi-discipline riders in cycling. Although her Wikipedia page says she’s a “Dutch cyclist specializing in cyclo-cross and mountain biking,” someone should probably update it “road cycling” as well.

This season Pieterse proved that she can win not only on her ‘cross and mountain bikes but at the highest level on the road as well. The Alpecin-Fenix rider racked up seven top-10 finishes on the Women’s WorldTour before winning stage 4 — and the young rider classification — of the Tour de France Femmes in August.

Meanwhile, Pieterse was racing her mountain bike to second place overall in the UCI XCO and XCC World Cup series, with one XCO and two short track wins. After becoming both the European and World XCO champions, Pieterse only narrowly missed the podium in the cross-country race at the Paris Olympics.

Comparison may be the thief of joy, but likening Pieterse to riders like Pauline Ferrand Prévot and Marianne Vos has to be exciting for the young Dutchwoman. Those two women are the only cyclists to have won multiple world championships across disciplines in the same year.

In 2022, PFP won four world championship titles, earning rainbow jerseys in marathon, short track, and XCO mountain biking in addition to the inaugural gravel world championship title.

While it may have been difficult for Pieterse to put away her XCO rainbow stripes for the season, having another set or two will make her future even brighter.